There was no apocalypse. The Mayans missed the mark, unless their predictions really were focused only on a cash-strapped soccer club in Glasgow.

After a hesitant start to World Cup qualifying, the U.S. national team eased into the Hexagonal with the second-best record among CONCACAF’s 12 semifinalists. Hosted by the participant with the better regular-season record for the first time, the MLS Cup final was contested at a soccer-specific stadium 1,000 miles from the nearest cold front. Rafa Márquez decided not to come back.

Not only was disaster averted, but American soccer enters 2013 in similar fashion to 2012. Jurgen Klinsmann has answered some questions, raised others and has a big year of qualifying ahead. The L.A. Galaxy are MLS champions, and the Houston Dynamo the runner-up. The New York Red Bulls fell short once again, Chivas USA is a disaster and the league is pushing for a 20th team in New York City. We’re all wondering where David Beckham is going to play, whether Freddy Adu ever will find his groove and if a women’s professional league can survive. Landon Donovan isn’t going on loan this winter, but questions concerning his ambition are being asked once again.

But American soccer isn’t spinning its wheels. Plenty happened in 2012 that’s worth reviewing. On Friday, we’ll examine the Year in MLS. Today, Sporting News takes a look at the memorable and regrettable during the past year of U.S. soccer:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Michael Bradley. The 25-year-old midfielder rarely put a foot wrong in 2012, was consistent from start to finish and raised his game at critical moments.

Bradley was brilliant in the national team’s historic 1-0 win in Italy, the year-ending 2-2 draw in Russia and the qualifying clincher vs. Guatemala. His ability to play different roles depending on his team’s needs in a particular game or moment is unique among his peers and his emergence as a leader and spokesperson has been apparent to anyone spending time with the U.S. national team.

Sound arguments can be made for Clint Dempsey, Chris Wondolowski and Tim Howard, but Bradley gets the nod thanks to his consistent excellence for club and country and his uniquely diverse skill set. He has become the most indispensable U.S. player.

BEST CELEBRATION

The win at Azteca. The 75-year winless streak at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City was broken by an 80th-minute goal set up and scored by the unlikely trio of Brek Shea, Terrence Boyd and Michael Orozco, substitutes whose combined ages didn’t match the duration of American futility on Mexican soil.

It was only an exhibition match, but the relief was palpable and the celebrations symbolic.

Boyd’s leap to the top of the field signage amounted to the planting of an American flag on the Azteca turf. A postgame locker room photo featuring a host of World Cup-winning smiles and Jermaine Jones attached to an oxygen tank demonstrated just how difficult playing at the Azteca is, and how much victory meant, to a U.S. squad gaining confidence with each passing match.

MOST DISCONCERTING MOMENT

The loss in Jamaica. Klinsmann blamed September’s 2-1 World Cup qualifying setback in Kingston on two untimely free kicks converted by the Reggae Boyz. But those free kicks came about during 89 minutes of soccer that were as ugly as any played by a U.S. team. Dempsey scored in the opening seconds and the Americans, minus the likes of Donovan and Bradley, chased Jamaica for the rest of the evening and struggled to put even a couple of passes together. The consternation over Klinsmann’s tactics and player selection had reached a fever pitch.

MOST SATISFYING MOMENT

The post-Guatemala reality check. The Americans responded to that setback with three consecutive wins, finishing first in their four-team World Cup qualifying group at 4-1-1. After closing out the competitive portion of the year with an easy 3-1 victory over Guatemala in Kansas City, some welcome perspective set in.

Despite playing in difficult conditions (the field in Antigua looked like a muddy, waterlogged racetrack) and without ever starting the same 11 players twice, the U.S. got the results it needed and finished with one of its best records in the modern era. The 9-2-2 mark (becoming 9-2-3 with the November tie in Russia) included victories in Italy and Mexico and featured the emergence of several new national team contributors.

It wasn’t always easy, but it’s not supposed to be. At the end of 2012, Klinsmann & Co. appear to be on the right track.

MOST DRAMATIC MOMENT

The Olympic women’s semifinal. The U.S. women had the stage to themselves this summer and made the most of it, winning their third consecutive Olympic gold medal a few days after an astonishing 4-3 semifinal victory over Canada that proved even more gripping than the Women’s World Cup defeat of Brazil the year before.

The U.S. had no answer for Canada’s Christine Sinclair, who had a hat trick, but leveled terms in the 80th minute on a controversial penalty from Abby Wambach. The play began with a stunning, letter-of-the-law delay of game call on Canada goalkeeper Erin McLeod that remains a sore subject among those north of the border who might have missed Melissa Tancredi’s second-half stomp on the head of U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd.

Given their chance, the U.S. capitalized and Alex Morgan headed home the winner in the 123rd exhausting minute.

“I’m still in shock,” Morgan said following the game. Nearly five months later, that might still be the case.

FEEL BAD STORY OF THE YEAR

Olympic qualifying failure. Eight months later, Klinsmann still couldn’t quite believe it. “This roster was made for a medal. That is the crazy part of it,” the U.S. coach said in November when reflecting on the Under-23 team’s group stage failure at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament.

The 3-3 draw that knocked out the Americans was soccer at its most gut-wrenching. A series of U.S. errors, capped off by goalkeeper Sean Johnson’s misplay, allowed El Salvador to score the fatal goal in the 94th minute. The Olympics represented a massive missed opportunity for the U.S., which might have been able to add seasoned European pros like Jozy Altidore, Danny Williams and Josh Gatt to the team in London. Instead, they watched as rival Mexico took home the gold.

SOAP OPERA OF THE YEAR

Landon Donovan. The national team’s most iconic player was poked, prodded and psychoanalyzed throughout the second half of the ‘12 season, following his May decision to discuss his waning physical and emotional energy.

Donovan’s candor always has been welcome and has set him apart, but this year it worked against him. His honesty when asked about his feelings and his future was thoughtful and genuine, but it wound up generating the sort of scrutiny and pressure he said he hoped to avoid. It also kept the story at the forefront and became a distraction for both the L.A. Galaxy and the U.S. national team.

MOST PUZZLING PERSONALITY

Abby Wambach. Over the past year and a half, Wambach’s relentless pursuit of victory, her immense contributions in the clutch and her inspiring on-field demeanor have lifted her into the rarified air occupied by women’s national team legends Michelle Akers, Carla Overbeck and Kristine Lilly.

But her priorities continue to puzzle. She continued to defend the belligerent businessman who nearly single-handedly brought about the demise of Women’s Professional Soccer, magicJack owner Dan Borislow, and called him an “inspiration” despite revelations of antisocial, aggressive and borderline misogynistic behavior.

Then in November, she told ESPN that the pay and benefits rumored to be available in the new National Women’s Soccer League are “below the standards of what this national team has built itself to be ... (and) what we deserve to be paid in a professional league.”

Pitting the national team players against the rank-and-file, throwing words like “deserve” around a sport that already has failed twice at the pro level -- that doesn’t seem like the same Wambach who’s proved to be so inspiring on the field.

BEST ROLE MODEL

Bob Bradley. He might have won more American fans as the coach of Egypt than during his five years in charge of the U.S. national team, which he led to the second round of the ’10 World Cup, the final of the ’09 Confederations Cup and the ’07 CONCACAF Gold Cup title.

Bradley’s empathy and courage following the February riot that killed dozens of fans at an Egyptian Premier League match, which included an appearance at a Cairo protest against the violence and a promise to stay on as coach, was only the beginning for a man who has become a remarkable ambassador to the Arab world.

He has visited sick kids in hospitals and comforted parents who lost children in a horrific November bus crash. All the while, he has been the face of the game in a soccer-mad country that hasn’t had an operational domestic league since February, whose national team is forced to play behind closed doors and which is desperate to qualify for its first World Cup since 1990.

Despite his success with the U.S., Bradley never was embraced by large segments of the American soccer public. His stoicism and serious nature often was mistaken for detachment. But he always led the national team with class and distinction. He now is doing the same a world away.